Why Blackwater - And More- Should Leave Iraq (Time)

[Klukie]

Blackwater's killing of at least nine civilians in downtown Baghdad Sunday leaves the Bush administration with a hard choice. Either leave an intolerable status quo in place, and stand by a 2004 Coalition Provisional Authority edict that puts security contractors above Iraqi law. Or divert military resources to replace private security contractors.

Kicking Blackwater out of Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki suggested, buys the Administration nothing. Blackwater has a cowboy reputation, but the team that pulled the trigger Sunday more than likely acted within the rules of engagement. With the caveat that first reports from the field are usually wrong, what apparently happened was that mortar rounds landed in the vicinity of the convoy. The Blackwater shooters assumed they were under attack. When a car bore down on the convoy, they made a second wrong assumption: a suicide bomber was behind the wheel. Things happened fast, and the Blackwater team fired on the car, killing a child and two adults. We can second-guess Blackwater all we want, but the ground truth is Iraq is a shoot first and ask questions later war.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663937,00.html

[kenny blankenship]

1. "Iraq is a shoot first and ask questions later war"

Meaning, I guess, if in doubt kill every Iraqi (or brown person) you see?

Now, this sounds like the kind of progress that today's Democratic Party can back with hundreds of billion$$$ more of taxpayer debt. As long as the progress keeps up at this encouraging rate, I see no reason why funding the war should be controversial at all, not in our lifetimes anyway.